The munchkin has been having a rough summer.

Unfortunately, he is not content to mess up his own life--he tries to take us all down with him.

We have been calling him on the passive-aggressive behavior: he will ask, "Do we have any more rice?" at the table. Then he will wait for us to offer it to him. If we don't, he will sulk.

Today he slept in despite us telling him to get up. Allegedly, he didn't hear us come in, get the hysterically crying dog out of his crate, let him outside, feed the dog who was by then back in and barking excitedly about breakfast, and hear us say, "time to get up" four times, let alone notice that the dog was now loose in the room with him. So he missed breakfast.

Then he ran through the house, completely out of control, tortured his sisters by making snide comments under his breath, and left everything which he started halfway done: he emptied the trash but didn't put a new bag in the can until he had thrown new trash into the can; left the lid off the garbage cans in the garage; he took the dogs out then left them unattended and the garage door open, providing them with the opportunity to snack on some spoiled food, coffee grounds, and eggshells, which they brought up later; he left doors open with the air conditioning on; he left the pool skimmer floating in the pool; he filled only two dog food bowls, leaving one dog to race around the house in concern while he fed the other two and went outside where he started to sweep the driveway; he got sidetracked, left the broom in the path of the garage door, then closed the door, which bent the broom in two; he put on a winter shirt, and when I sent back him to change, he took off the clean shirt and threw it on his bedroom floor, where he walked on it. He forgot to brush his teeth; he soaped in the shower and had to be sent back to rinse. After four hours, we had all had it with him; we fed him supper and put him in bed.

And we get to do it all over again tomorrow.